Social networking platforms and networks, including, e.g., FACEBOOK, GOOGLE+, LINKEDIN, TWITTER, YOUTUBE, XING, and many others, are commonly employed by millions of users. They have become so pervasive that they are now commonly used even by organizations and other commercial enterprises to advertise as well as communicate with their target audiences on behalf of the organizations. (The social networking platforms named in this application may be registered or common law trademarks of entities unrelated to the applicant. Applicant makes no claim of ownership over any such trademarks.)
A social account (or simply “account”) is an account on one or more social networking platform (“social network”). An account can be associated with an individual (e.g., a natural person) or it can be associated with an organization (e.g., created by an employee of the organization) for broadcasting information about the organization or its products or services. Creating accounts on these social networks is relatively simple and users can create a “presence” on the social networks for themselves, their products, their brands and/or their initiatives. Organizations can grant to people and applications administrative access to one or more of their social accounts. These social accounts and the activity on them become very valuable forums for communicating with audiences of the organization including, e.g., employees, potential employees, influencers, prospective customers, and customers. Organizations have learned that ensuring the integrity of the content of these accounts is as important as protecting the integrity of the content published on their website.
Social networks generally have application programmatic interfaces (“APIs”) that enable third party applications (“social applications” or simply “applications”) to integrate with the social networks and provide additional services for the social networks' users. Many social applications provide publishing services that enable users to concurrently publish content across multiple social networks. Many of these social applications for publishing also have APIs that enable third party integration.
Many organizations attempt to enforce written Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) that define what, how, and where employees may communicate with the company's customers in their roles as representatives of the company and its brands. Companies attempt to enforce their AUPs across all communication channels. However, enforcement can often be difficult.